Kids and homework/projects

[mrsgus06]

I have 3 daughters in school. 1st, 3rd and 5th grade. I also have a daughter in 4K at another school. I pick the 4k up at 12:00 and the others at 2:30. We are all home by 3:00 and the homework starts immediately upon arrival. Last week all 4 girls had some type of project. The 4k had to tell me a story and I had to write it down, word for word. The 1st grader had to make a 100 day poster (themed) for the 100th day of school. The 3rd grader has a biography due this Monday (Walt Disney, of course) and the 5th grader had to create an invention, register it at the contest at the local mall (I had to register it for her since it was during school hours), had a field trip to the mall and was required to go back to the mall at 6:00 the same night for the awards presentation. Now the 3rd grader has to complete a science fair project due sometime in March. This does not even begin the routine homework for every day. The 1st grader brings her homework home by the week, Tues to Tues, so I can get her to finish all of hers on a good day. Every day, Every day, I am sitting at the kitchen counter with them until 5:00 or 5:30 trying to help them with their homework. Today, one has a multiplication test, a social studies test, a spelling test and the other has a social studies test and a spelling test. I agree you should study for these, but that still does not include their written home work! Maybe someone can explain to me why a 5th grader has 2 hours of homework, EVERY DAY! I have a son that has already graduated from high school and attending college and he never had the amount of homework these girls have and he was in the gifted program (SAIL). The 5th grader is also in SAIL and I am thinking about pulling her out. All they do is projects, projects, projects! OK, am I the only one that feels that there is too much homework given to school kids today? I can't imagine what the parents that work full time outside of the home go through when they get home with their school kids! I say enough is enough and summertime just needs to get here!!!!! Rant over, thanks, I feel much better. Have a great day!

 

[golfgal]

I have 2 5th graders and they don't have even close to that much homework. They are usually able to get the bulk of their work done in school. Are the other kids in your DD's class doing the same amount of homework each night? Is your DD not using her time wisely in class? There are a lot of variables to homework.

 

[BWVDenise]

I hear you!! I have one in 2nd grade, one in 3rd grade, and one in 5th grade. They all just finished projects that took us endless hours to do. My 3rd grader gets the most homework. Some days she does homework from the time she gets home until dinner, does some in between dinner and karate, then finishes after karate and goes to bed. I feel like she doesn't have a chance to be a kid. That's not to even mention the tutors and morning math program she goes to at school for extra help.

And this year, the homework they send home has lengthy instructions that the parents are supposed to read in order to help the child do the homework because they are changing the way they do everything. They are really putting a lot of pressure on the parents now.

 

[clh2]

I have 2 5th graders and they don't have even close to that much homework. They are usually able to get the bulk of their work done in school. Are the other kids in your DD's class doing the same amount of homework each night? Is your DD not using her time wisely in class? There are a lot of variables to homework.

I was wondering about this too. My DD is now in 6th grade, and she works really hard at school to keep homework to a minimum. I've heard other parents comment on how much their kids (in my DD's classes) have.

 

[holbear]

My DS is in 3rd grade and does seem to have an awful lot of homework some days. Last night he had about 2 hours worth, and he wasn't just fooling around to finish. He had a ridiculous spelling assignment (writing each word, 3 times each, in a different font). That alone took forever! His words are long (about 15 letters each) and he was trying to be neat doing curly letters, box letters, bubble letters. I felt so sorry for him. He also had a reading assignment and a written summary. We didn't even get to finish up the work on his project due tommorrow. He (we) needed to create a musical instrument that could change pitch, make a flowchart, written report, and prepare for an oral presentation.

My DD is in 1st grade, so her work isn't bad... yet.... and then I have a younger DD as well.

I often sit and the table with the kids doing work. Parents really have to be super involved now days.

 

[aprilgail2]

Our schol policy is 10 minutes per grade...though most nights my 1st grader is done in 5 minutes....we also only get homework Mon-Thurs...nothing on weekends or school vacations. Once they hit middle school its 10 minutes per subject so that could be an hour and a half for 6-8. I know once they hit high school they hardly get any homework here so it just doesn't make sense to kill the little ones with homework but the big ones get like 10 minutes a night!

 

[PlutoPony]

My 5th grader brings very little work home BUT most days he gets his homework done at school. At this age they have a fair amount of time available to them to get different things done in school, so when in-class work is taken care of most of them dive into homework. Talked to the mom of a friend in this same class and this kid's doing about 2 hours of work a night (DS and his friend are both A students). Hmmm... turns out his friend is not particularly diligent about getting things done and now his family is working hard on his organization skills (which is a good thing). So maybe something else is going on in school that you can help with? But 2 hours of work a night for an organized together student is a LOT given how much time the same work would take for student with average or below skills...

 

[bananiem]

Some kids get their work done at school, some kids don't so their "seatwork" becomes homework, some teachers aren't very organized and don't give enough time to complete seatwork, some districts mandate how much is to be given for homework.
I only have 2 kids but if I doubled their work (to make 4 kids) I'd have about what you have each night, except for the 5th grader. Does she work the 2 hours SOLID on her homework? I mean, some kids wander around, then go get a snack, or maybe she's has to wait until you're done with the spelling test for another child before it's her turn for help?

 

[minkydog]

Sheesh! I didn't work that hard when I was homeschooling the kids! Are the school age kids at all independent in their work? If not,that needs to be a priority. It's one thing to supervise homework, but you shouldn't have to be sitting with them every minute, participating. Assign the older ones to drill the younger ones on spelling, multiplication tables, etc. Driving to the mall is something only you or you SO can do--that whole situqation would have irked me. But does it have to be done before 5pm? could it wait until after supper?

Is it a problem of time management, or do they truly have too much to get done in an hour? If they are wasting time, set a kitchen timer. Tie rewards to getting the work done on time. If they just have way too much to do, I'd get in touch with their teachers and let them know how this is impacting your family life. They may not be aware that the homework is taking so much time away.

 

[bananiem]

Are the school age kids at all independent in their work? If not,that needs to be a priority. It's one thing to supervise homework, but you shouldn't have to be sitting with them every minute, participating.

I agree. I'm in the kitchen getting dinner ready or whatever. So I'm available to answer questions and check to make sure everything's complete.

 

[disykat]

When my older son was in 5th grade he had two hours of homework a day (not uncompleted work - homework). My younger son is in 5th grade now with a different teacher and barely has any. I wish our school would do the 10 minutes per year per day.

 

[Hannathy]

Don't forget to lay in your supply of poster board ! I swear they get a kick back on its purchase. It seems that around 3rd or 4th grade the homework really starts to build. 10 minutes per subject or hour that seems really low. My daughter has had 2-4 hrs a night since 4th grade and is in 8th now. She does not goof around in school but they really don't have much of a chance to do any in the schedule.
At the elementary school all grades are expected to read or be read to for kndgrt. for 20 minutes a day and then have regular homework. The standard the school claims to recommend but doesn't follow is this reading plus 10 min x the grade so 5th gr = 50 minutes + 2o min. Weekends and Holidays are fair game. How do high schoolers not have homework I guess it really depends on their subjects. Believe me if you have chemistry, calculus and AP History you will have homework.

I get mad at all the busy work that is given.

I always allow my kids some break time after school. They need to take a breather Do you come straight home and do your taxes? (for example)

 

[Snoopymom]

I consider homework and work they didn't finish in class when they could have, to be completely different, and I agree that kids are given way too much homework and/or projects for their ages. I don't know how you do it with four. I have one ds in Kindergarten. Dh is out of town, so ds had to ride the bus home to his Grandma's yesterday and by the time I picked him up, went out to dinner, got home, got his bath and opened his book bag to find homework in it, he was already in bed. I woke him up early to do it this morning. It only took 15 minutes but I just thought Kindergarten is too young for this, and my nephew in first grade has a homework sheet every night, so I guess they're trying to prepare them younger and younger which I don't think is necessary.

 

[missypie]

PROJECTS, PROJECTS, PROJECTS. I agree that when they all hit at once, it makes me nuts.

One thing that every parent of a school child needs to do: Buy poster board in quantity (like the 10 pack). It took me a couple of years of running out at night to buy poster board before I figured this one out.

My DD13 has rough Mondays...school dance team right after school, then she goes straight to dance company for 3 hours and finally gets home at abtou 8:30 pm. Monday night she raced through dinner so she could start her huge pile of homework. The first thing: a very difficult WORD SEARCH, for pre-AP science class (words like virus, cough, etc.) After watching her do it for about 5 minutes, DH said "You do the rest of your homework...we'll do the word search." So DH, DS and I all took turns. What could she possibly learn from spending an hour doing a word search???

 

[Tigger&Belle]

I dread projects the most! I have 4 kids, who are far apart in age. My DD is in college and I have boys who are in 10, 7th, and K, so I've been able to see how things have changed in our schools. Not sure how it will be for my youngest, but when my DD was in elem school she had so many projects, especially in 3rd grade. At least a major project every month. Her younger brother had the same teacher, but they didn't have all the projects.

I'm not sure why your 4yo has homework. Isn't that still a preschool situation or is it more of a formal pre-K?

And 2 hours seems way too long for a 5th grader. I take care of a 5th grader before/after school and very often she finishes her homework at school and when she doesn't she has no more than 1/2 hour of homework. That doesn't count reading or extra studying for tests--she does that with her mom.

Other than the amount homework your 5th grader has, I think that you are experiencing the normal load for someone with lots of kids, especially young children who still need a lot of parental help. I can most certainly understand what you are going through because I've been there, done that. As your kids get older they will hopefully get more independent and need less help.

 

[PrincessNancy96]

As a mom of 5 kids we have a homework routine too!
The 8th... gets a majority of his homework done in class.. However, I believe that is because he does his homework while the teacher is talking and doesn't get the full "jest" of the lecture. He is an honor student so he is doing something right... When he has projects to do his father and I make him outline what has to be done in order to get this done well and on time... Than my dh and I call and check up on his project when he is with his mom and she also gets a copy of the outline so that she can keep up with him..
DD 6th grade gets her homework done in class but brings it home each night to have it checked by us. We have the same project routine set for her as our 8th grader. My hope is that as she matures this will be second nature for her and we won't have to worry as much during high school (although, I will worry til she is out of college, as I will with all my kids).
Our 5th grader is a whole other story...he doesn't like to do any more than he has too..and tends not to bring homework home and gets caught... Thank goodness for being friends with teachers! We have to really stay on him to complete projects timely.. He would prefer to wait for the last possible minute and than as luck would have it.. everyone has something major due on that day!
Our 4th grader...brings home quite a bit of homework..but again it's mainly to be checked. His teacher gives them plenty of time to work on homework in class so that if there are questions they can ask.
Our youngest will be in kindergarten next year...but he likes to do homework with the kids.. He grabs and pencil and paper and practices writing his name and numbers.
When the kids get off the bus, they get 1/2 hour of downtime to get a snack, tell me about their day or veg out... Than it's to homework.. they sit at the kitchen table or the breakfast bar that way if I'm starting dinner..I'm within distance to get their questions answered or keep them on track in case they decide to get a case of the chatterboxes! It's fun to listen to what is exciting in their day as they tell their siblings what went on...

I also babysit afterschool and the one little girl is in DD's class..and she brings home tons of homework.. When I asked why she had so much more than daughter.. she responded with "I'm too busy trying to find out who likes who."..

 

[SC Minnie]

DD (6th grade) usually gets hers done at school and if not typically has less than an hour. When she was in 4th grade she had 2+ hours a night. I had to pull her out of some activities because of it.

I also agree with the older kids helping the younger. I have never sat with DD and watched/helped her do her whole assignment. I make her do as much as she can on her own and then find out what she needs help with. I tell her I have already been to 6th grade I don't need to do the work again but I will gladly help her understand it.

 

[MoniqueU]

I can relate. I have a 2nd grader, a third grader and a 7th grader. Sometimes it takes my 3rd grader 2 or 3 hours to get her work done. My 7th grader has less homework then she does. My 2nd grader has about right. This is of course if we have no projects going.
I have 2 projects going right now, one for my 2nd grader. It's a fairy tale book project where she has to dress up in character and answer questions on her character. Cost of this project? 50 bucks about for the costume and the book.
My 7th grader has a science observation project due. It must include a report, a journal, pictures, a powerpoint presentation and wind speed, temperature, wind direction etc. Also he must gather up specimens while in the field.
Cost for an anemometer for this project 48 bucks. We already have the software for the powerpoint presentation.

I mention the costs of these projects just to illustrate how much schooling costs. We are in public school btw.
There was a poster on these boards awhile ago saying she would never do homework with her kids on the weekend it was family time. I had to
We do homework every day but when these projects come up we don't have much spare time on school nights to work on them so of course it happens on the weekend. You gotta do what you gotta do.

 

[SC Minnie]

There was a poster on these boards awhile ago saying she would never do homework with her kids on the weekend it was family time. I had to
We do homework every day but when these projects come up we don't have much spare time on school nights to work on them so of course it happens on the weekend. You gotta do what you gotta do.

We do most of the projects on the weekends because she usually has a couple of weeks notice. I don't have the time and energy to deal with those during the week. Even though she does most of the projects herself she does need 'guidence'.

 

[Lisa Lefebvre]

I have 2 kids in school. I have a 1st grader and a 4th grader. My first grader gets her homework done in less than five minutes but my 4th grader has at least an hour on most nights. The problem with the homework is most of it my child has no idea how to do it, so who gets stuck doing it the parents. I don't mind helping but I shouldn't be teaching it plus doing it. They put too much pressure on elementary school kids. Furthermore, I get frustrated when she comes home with it not corrected.